Either I have crappy playback gear, nah...

  What's that high end distortion when jamming the Chilli Peppers or Rush?  It's something to do with the file compression...

  Any other casualties of the lautstärkekrieg?  Do you notice?  Does it matter..?

  http://newmusicstrategies.com/2008/08/11/whats-the-loudness-war/

Yep, this has been an issue for a long time now, compression is pretty much ruining what ever sonic high and lows there is in music.

Worse yet is all the "advances" in audio we have today are made useless until the labels start realizing blasting the song the loudest DOES NOT mean it will sell or play better.

Initially the trend to make music louder had gone back to the 40's & 50's, the louder song on the jukebox got more attention (and in the labels mind) more play. By the time stereophonic and other advances in music came about the loudness war was beginning to interfere with sonic quality, but the scope of the problem hasn't really been apparent till the digital age reveals the absence in range we have now.

Even those hardcore audiophiles that swear by vinyl loose out nowadays. Of the few die hard bands that have released their albums on vinyl, they get mastered from the compressed digital recordings to begin with (as previously wax got a different master), making a bad situation even worse when compressed music is played back on a turntable.

Isn't it amazing as we go along to find out just how badly the record companies have screwed us and artists over the years? Unethical contracts/royalty collections, Payola scandals, 8-tracks, Billy Ray Cyrus/Nickelback...Its like peeling an onion, it just gets worse... :P